Speaking of stars of yesteryear Bob, check this out:

http://www.wcr.com/page.cfm

World Classic Rockers. I would call them the ultimate cover band. All these slightly second tier former members of some of the biggest rock bands ever are now doing corporate gigs. I heard about them because a friend has a Journey tribute band and is a killer singer. He somehow got hooked up with WCR to do two Journey songs. They pay him $300 per song but he has to get himself to the gig. The last one was in the Bay area and he lives here. They have specific people who come on to do just 2 or 3 tunes in the exact style of the original star. Similar to the Vegas show groups I used to work with back in the 70's. He's not a regular yet but he has done 3 gigs I think and they're thinking about using him on a regular basis. Not too many vocalists can really do Steve Perry well. The problem is even they don't work all the time and he doesn't have their money. He would have to give up all his other gigs in order to be available for them and he's not sure if it's worth it yet.

To get back to my original point, regular gigs for regular experienced players like me are definitely drying up. Groups like WCR are sucking the air out of the market. And that's for rock stuff, jazz stuff is turning into a complete blackout on the local level.

Scott, I totally agree with you, of course there's still other things going on in musical styles we can relate to it's just the "new" mainstream as reflected by that show is getting bigger while our stuff is getting gradually but inexorably smaller. I haven't had a chance to perform any B3 licks since before Xmas. Our audience is not going out like they used to.

This of course was totally predictable and inevitable, I've seen it coming for years but it still sucks to now be living it.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.